Write For The Web
Your Feedback

Write For The Web

Menu▾

Time to Review and Choose Your Titles

Understand the role of Titles for your website

Because Titles are so important, we suggest different ways to understand how to properly choose and create your titles.


What are Titles Exactly?

   • You can find a Title at the top of each page. On this page it is:

       "Time to Review and Choose Your Titles" 

   • You can also add Titles to your blocks. See below: 
        "Let's make sure we know how to make a title in a block of text"

         (You will also find the title of a page in the meta tags )


Let's make sure we know how to make a title for a block of text

    • Select the first words that you want to set as a title:
       They must be isolated words, with an empty line under them 

    • Click on the "T" icon
           - See what happens to your text.
           - Click OK.


How will the right titles help me with my clients and search engines?

You may have seen this in our welcome email 

...

1 • List the top 5 questions your clients/readers will ask Google to find your website. 
   In their own words. Literally. Interview your future readers and take notes.

2 • List the top 5 questions your readers will have in mind when browsing your site. 
    Again, in their own words.
    HINT: these are often not the same questions/formulations as in (#1).

3 • Create one dedicated page to answer each topic:

4• Choose your Titles well:

   - A typical Google query (1.)
     is a good base for the Title of the page that answers that question  

Hint #2: “home", “welcome", "a phone number", ... are not good titles for your home page. Nobody is typing "Home" to find a "reliable plumber in South Manchester".
Hint #3: in many cases users' questions include the name of a place.

  

   - Typical questions from your users, in their own words (2.)
      are good to title short paragraphs in these pages 

This page is a good example: short paragraphs and big Titles that help readers browse quickly and find what they want to read.

...

H1, H2?

For those who have been doing a bit of HTML. 
The Page Titles are H1, in the code of your published page.
A Title on a block is an H2. ( It is about hierarchisation: An H2 is like a sub-heading of an H1 )

_ _ _

You can see how your titles present the information available to your reader.
The Titles are also keywords, and are important for Google to understand
what your site is about and how useful it can be.

Feel free to contact us for our feedback on the titles you have chosen.

Titles draw the eye and focus the reader's understanding, ...
Titles draw the eye and focus the reader's understanding, ...

Some important concepts before you review your Titles

  • After gathering their questions, you have a clear picture of your readers' expectations. 
  • You know better how to address your readers in their own words. 
  • You have witnessed how a site is "read", or rather zigzagged and skipped through.
  • You know the keywords that your clients will be looking for and the expressions they are expecting to find. 

_  _  _

It is now time to take every chapter and every block into consideration and re-write the titles with the following in mind. 

  • The Title of a block says what is in the block, no more, no less.
  • A Page Title allows a visitor to clearly guess the content of the page. If there is some content that does not correspond to the title, either the title or the content has to change.
  • The eye will naturally stop on the titles. It will often be the only part of a paragraph that readers will actually read.
  • Your readers will perceive the structure of your answer (page) from these titles, and consider them as starting points from which to read further.
  • Search engines will see keywords participating in the 'picture' they build of your site, in terms of both content and structure.

_  _  _

A quick guide to editing the titles of your site: 

    > The title of each page
It is often a strong echo of the label of the tab on the left. It confirms where you are, and concisely defines the content of the page.
It is the first line under the header, usually in bigger characters. 
Just click on it to edit. (for coders, this title is an H1) 

    > The title of a block (or a paragraph in a block)
When you have the text that fulfills the criteria mentioned above, select your text, usually at the beginning of the chapter, and use the (T) in the editor to place a title. 
(for coders, this will be an H2)

_  _  _

The golden rule: Work from the inside out


A good website can actually be built in the reverse direction to how it will be experienced by your readers.  
 
   Start by creating the text of each chapter, without titles.
    Define the title of each section from the content of the section.
   Finish with the title of the page, to summarize the content.
    Review the name of the tab
to allow readers to comfortably guess the content you just titled.

Now what? 

Things are starting to look clear and easy for your readers to understand. You are probably feeling eager to start work on your homepage. Before you do that, though, there are a few more steps. Place links throughout your site

Photo by